Self-adjusting sealing edge for installation of piers



July 18,1944. A. D. QUINN.

SELF ADJUSTING SEALING EDGE FOR INSTALLATION OF PIERS Filed April 20, 1942 WaferlNvENToR .ozo D. Qu'

BY U27?,

ATTORNEYS Patented July 18, 1944 SELF-ADJUSTING SEALING EDGE FOR INSTALLATION F PIERS Alonzo D. Quinn, Garden City, N. Y., assignor to Moran. Proctor, Freeman & Mueser, New York,

N. Y.. a partnership Application April 20, 1942, Serial No. 439,662

3 Claims.

Foundation engineers commonly are called upon to erect piers and supports for structures overlying water or soft swampy land. Bridges and causeways are examples of such structures. A grain elevator might be another. To provide adequate support it is often necessary to sink piers down to a sub-stratum sufficiently durable to bear the Weight of the finished structure. One method of installing such piers consists in sinking or driving pipes of a suitable diameter down to the selected sub-stratum, removing the silt, earth and other material from the interior of each pipe, and thereafter filling the pipes with concrete.

The sub-stratum upon which the structure ultimately is to rest is usually rock or hardpan. Frequently it does not present a level surface but instead slopes away more or less gradually. It is obvious that if a pipe, for example, three feet in diameter is sunk down to a rock surface which is falling away at a rate, for example, of one inch per foot of horizontal travel, one edge of the pipe will come into solid engagement with the rock while the opposite side of the bottom edge is yet three inches from the rock surface. Under such circumstances there remains a substantial gap between the bottom of the pipe and the surface of the rock and when it is attempted to remove the interior contents of the pipe to make way for pouring in concrete, silt, etc. from above will ow through the gap and into the pipe as fast as it is removed.

My invention comprises a method of, and apparatus for, sealing the gap between the bottom of the pipe or form and the surface of the bearing layer which might otherwise result from unevenness or a sloping away of the bearing layer. More specifically, it has been discovered that if the pipe or form to be sunk is provided at its lower end with a yieldable edge which will collapse or retreat as it is engaged by the unyielding bearing surface, or with an edge which may be made to advance to the unyielding bearing surface, until it conforms throughout its periphery to the configuration of the surface presented below, no gap will remain and it will be possible to remove the silt, mud and other material from the pipe or form and fill it with concrete without interference from such silt, etc. on the outside.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus of the character described having to a notable extent the characteristics and capabilities above set forth. Another object is to disclose a method of establishing an underwater seal between the edge of a form and a rock bottom for the installation of a pier. A further object is to present an apparatus suitable for use with known pier forms for providing an underwater seal between the form and an irregular bottom. Other objects and advantages of my invention will be in part obvious and in part pointed out as the description proceeds.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations 0f elements, arrangements of parts, and the use of the same as will be exemplified in the structure and methods to be hereinafter described and the scope of the application of which will be set forth in the following claims.

In the accompanying drawing, in which are shown two of the Various possible embodiments of the invention- Fig. 1 is an elevation, with parts broken away and parts in section, of the application of the invention to a pier form resting on a sloping rock surface covered with overlying layers of silt and water;

Fig. 2 illustrates a relatively enlarged detail of the apparatus shown in Fig. l; i

Fig. 3 is a sectional view along the line 3-3 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a detail of a View similar to Fig. 1 but showing a modification of the invention.

Referring to Fig. 1, the numeral III indicates a steel shell, cylindrical in cross section and with the lower left hand corner touching the sloping rock surface II, upon which a pier is to bear. Encircling the lower end of the shell IIJ is a metal strap I2.- Strap I2 is maintained in the position illustrated by means of tap bolts I3 `(Fig. 3) screwed into the threaded holes I4 in shell I0. Between shell IIJ and strap I2, and held in position by frictional engagement therewith, is a series of plate-like members I5 (Fig. 2) together forming the composite sleeve I6 (Fig. 3). As shown, these members I5 are made of sheet metal but they may be made of any suitable material.

Each member I5 has indented surfaces I'I (Fig. 2). The indented surfaces II face one another, when members I5 are assembled into the composite sleeve I6, to form guides I8, in which the tap bolts I3 are located. Each member I5 is slidable between its two adjacent tap bolts I3 and the force required to slide any one member I5 depends upon the setting of the two adjacent tap bolts I3.

In operation the members I5 are adjusted to the position shown in Fig. 2, most of each guide I8 being located below its tap bolt I3. Tap bolts I3 are then tightened so that the frictional resistance between members I5 and shell Ill is sufficiently great that members I5 will not slip on shell I from being sunk through the overlying layers of silt, etc. The setting of tap bolts I3 is such, however, that each member I will slip as it engages the rock surface I I. The members I5 will begin successively to slip as the shell lil is y.flowered or driven against the sloping rock until finally each one of the members I5 has been brought into engagement with the rock surface, as illustrated in Fig. 1.

It will be noted that a small gap remains between one bottom corner of some of the elements I 5 and rock surface I I. These gaps are obviously much smaller than the opening which would have resulted if the composite sleeve I6 had not been provided. In practice, these gaps are rendered sufliciently small, by making elements I5 correspondingly narrow, that the surrounding silt or other material will usually tend to choke them. The result is that the seal between shell and bearing surface, for all practical purposes, is tight and concrete can be poured into the form without danger of interference by matter coming in from below.

Referring to Fig. 4, a modified form is disclosed in which the sealing means is located interiorly of the pier form. The steel shell H0 is provided on its inside with a metal strap II2 spaced from the lower end of the shell and maintained in the position illustrated by means of tap bolts II3 threaded into the shell. Between the strap H2 and shell IIB, and held in position by frictional engagement therewith, is a series of plate-like members II5 together forming the composite telescopic extension IIS. The members H5 are similar to the corresponding members l5 of the embodiment shown in Figs. 1-3, the guides H8 being formed in the same manner as guides I8.

In operation, the composite extension IE6 is adjusted with most of each guide IIB located below its associated tap bolt II3 and the tap bolts, as before, are tightened to provide sufcient friction that each member II5 will slip when its bottom edge reaches the solid bearing surface. Sometimes, because of loose rock or comparatively hard portions of subsoil for example, some, or all, of the members I I5 may be forced to slip on shell rI I0 before the bearing surface is reached. With the embodiment of Fig. 4 this condition is easily remedied because the composite, telescopic extension I I 6 is relatively accessible to the operator and each member II5 may be individually driven down (as by a follower operated within shell I I0) against the bearing surface when the uppermost portion of the bearing surface has been brought into contact with the form.

In the illustrative embodiments the pier fo-rm is made of a cylindrical steel shell. In so far as the present invention is concerned, however, it is immaterial whether the pier form be cylindrical in cross section or otherwise. Likewise, it is immaterial whether the pier form be of steel, metal, wood, concrete or any other material suited and used for the purpose. Furthermore, it is inconsequential whether the sealing sleeve be precisely as disclosed.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that a device made in accordance with the present invention is well adapted to attain the ends and objects hereinbefore set forth and to be economically manufactured and put to use, since the entire mechanisms of the illustrative forms consist of sheet metal and tap bolts of a sort ordinarily found in stock on a construction job of the type disclosed.

As many possible embodiments may be made of the above invention and as many changes might be made in the embodiments above set forth, it

is to be understood that all matter hereinbefore set forth or shown in the accompanying drawing is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Iclaim:

1. A pier mold, one end of said mold being enveloped by a sleeve, said sleeve comprising a series of relatively slidable plates, said plates being maintained in position by a strap, and means cooperating with said strap and said mold providing for adjustment of the slidability of said plates in accordance with the type of bottom upon which the pier is to be erected, whereby the mold may be lowered against an uneven, hard bottom stratum with said plates sliding with respect to the mold as they come into engagement with said hard stratum but whereby the resistance to sliding between said plates and the mold may be made sufficiently great that silt, etc., overlying said hard stratum will not cause sliding of said plates as the mold is lowered.

2. A pier mold, one end of said mold enveloping a telescopic extension, said telescopic extension comprising a series of relatively slidable plates, said plates being maintainedin position by a strap, and means cooperating with said strap and said mold providing for adjustment of the slidability of said plates in accordance with the type of bottom upon-which the pier is to be erected, whereby the mold may be lowered against an uneven, hard bottom stratum with said plates sliding lwith respect to the mold as they come into engagement withsaid hard stratum but whereby the resistance to sliding between said plates and the mold may be made sufficiently great that Vsil't,etc., overlying said hard stratum will not cause sliding of said plates as the mold is lowered.

3. In a matrix-like form fora pier, a sealing means adjacent the bottom end of the form for effecting a substantially tight seal between the form and an irregular bottom upon which the pier is to be erected; said sealing means being characterized by the factv that portions of its bottom edge are relatively movable with respect to the form and with respect to one another, whereby the form may be lowered against an uneven, hard bottom stratum with said portions of the bottom edge of said sealing lmeans yielding as they come into engagement with said hard stratum thus permitting said bottom edge to conform to the irregular bottom.

ALONZO D. QUINN. 

